Drawer



F. C. KEGEL Nov. 28, 1967 DRAWER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 4, 1966 INVENTOR. Francis C. Kegel f 7 14 ulfim ATTORNEYS Nov. 28, 1967 F. c. KEGEL 3,355,231

DRAWER Filed Jan. 4, 1966 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,355,233. DRAWER Francis C. Kegel, Tonawan-da, N.Y., assignor to Barrett- Kegel (lorporation, Franitinviile, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Jan. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 519,404 3 Claims. (Cl. 312-45) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Particularly with prescription filling druggists and the paper work connected therewith, a large quantity of different size empty bottles should be immediately at hand in regular order and the stock conveniently refillable. This is accomplished by drawers each slidable horizontally into and out of a cabinet through a rectangular drawer open by means of horizontal slide rails fixed to the side of the drawer and slidingly supported by the cabinet, the front wall of the drawer being lower than the height of said opening to permit manual access to the drawer interior, when closed, and the drawer carrying a tray having a bottom wall sloping downwardly toward the drawer front wall so that the bottles slide down to the front of the drawer to be accessible through the oversize drawer open. For refill, the drawer is merely slid out of the cabinet and refilled. Desirably this slope of the bottom wall of the tray relative to the drawer is adjustable and the tray is provided internally with fore-and-aft partitions forming ways for the different bottles. These features of the sliding door and cabinet summarize the invention.

In the accompanying drawings, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a modular section of a bench for druggists containing two drawers embodying the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one of the drawers removed from the cabinet. FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical fore-and-aft section through the drawer taken generally on line 3-3, FIG. 2 and showing, in dot-dash lines, the manner in which the rear end of the article containing tray can be adjusted to different elevations and showing, in dotted lines, two rows of bottles of different sizes contained therein. FIG. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged vertical transverse section through the drawer taken generally on line 44, FIG. 2. FIG. 5 is a fragmentary horizontal section taken generally on line 5-5, FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged side elevational view of the rear end of the side wall of the tray in which the articles are contained, and showing in partial elevation one of the legs by which the rear end of the tray can be supported at different elevations. FIG. 7 is a further enlarged fragmentary vertical section taken on line 7-7, FIG. 6.

In FIG. 1 is illustrated a modular unit for use, side by side, with other modular units (not shown) in providing a bench for pharmacists in filling prescriptions as well as doing the necessary paper work and money handling connected therewith. The modular unit shown in FIG. 1 comprises a cabinet 9 which can be made of wood or other material having a counter top 10, side walls 11 and a rear wall 12 the front of the cabinet being open and the open front containing horizontal cross bars 13 between the side walls 11 defining two horizontal elongated, rectangular drawer openings 14 through which the drawers 15 of the present invention are designed to be slid into and out of the cabinet. In addition, the cabinet is shown as having an upper horizontal cross bar 16 between the side walls 11 and central vertical bars 18 across its open front forming rectangular openings 19 for four smaller top drawers 20 which form no part of the present invention.

The drawer forming the subject of the present inven- 3,355,231 Patented Nov. 28, 1967 tion is shown as made principally of sheet metal having, however, a wooden front wall 25, sheet metal side walls 26 and a sheet metal rear wall 27, these walls forming general continuations of one another and being connected by a sheet metal bottom wall 28. The particular manner in which these walls are connected to one another forms no part of the present invention, the bottom wall 28 being shown as being integral with the two side walls 26 which are headed at their top, as indicated at 29, and the bottom wall 28 being provided with a front downturned flange 30 connected in any suitable manner to the wooden front wall 25, and each side wall 26 being provided at its front end with a vertical flange 31 also suitably connected to the wooden front wall 25, as best shown in FIG. 5. The bottom wall 28 is provided at its rear end with an upturned flange 32, as best shown in FIG. 3, and each side wall 26 is provided at its rear end with a vertical inturned flange 33, these flanges 32, 33 fitting against and being suitably secured to the sheet metal rear wall 27 which is preferably beaded at its upper edge, as indicated at 34. In addition a horizontal cross angle bar 35 is shown as secured to the inside face of the front wall 25 near the upper edge thereof.

A feature of the invention resides in the front wall 25 being of much lower elevation than the drawer opening 14 in the cabinet 9 and also lower than the rear wall 27 of the drawer, the side walls 26 being preferably of wedgeshaped form in elevation, being low at their front ends and high at their rear ends. By virtue of the front walls 25 of the drawers 15 being of substantially lower elevation than the drawer openings 14 it will be seen that ready access can be had to the interior of the front ends of the drawers without opening or pulling the drawers out of the cabinet, as illustrated in FIG. 1.

Each drawer 15 is completed by a slide rail 36 along each of its fore-and-aft lower corners, these slide rails being shown as being of rectangular Z-shape in cross section, having one flange extending under the bottom wall 28 of the drawer and its opposite flange projecting outwardly from the corresponding side wall 26 of the drawer. These slide rails are preferably supported within the cabinet 9 by conventional ball bearing roller sliders (not shown) for ease in opening and closing the drawer, but these slide rails could, of course, also be supported by simple supporting rails (not shown) along the inner faces of the side walls 11 of the cabinet.

An important feature of the invention resides in the mounting of a tray 38 in each of the drawers 15. This tray is preferably made of sheet metal comprising a rectangular bottom wall 39; a front wall 40 having a forwardly projecting top flange 41 adapted to rest on the horizontal cross angle bar 35 carried by the front drawer wall 25; a rear wall 42 having a rearwardly protruding top flange 43 which is arranged in close proximity to the top bead 34 of the rear drawer wall 27 in the lowermost position of the tray 38; and side walls 44 each having outwardly projecting top flanges 45 adapted to rest on the beads 29 of the drawer side walls 26 and each tray side wall 44 also having vertical front and rear end flanges 46 arranged in face-to-face relation with and secured to the front and rear tray walls 40 and 42, respectively.

The front and rear tray walls 40 and 42 also each has secured thereto a holder 50 for the corresponding ends of a plurality of vertical, fore-and-aft partition plates 51 which latter are in the form of simple rectangular metal sheets. Each of the holders 50 is of channel shape in cross section having top and bottom flanges 52, 53 secured to the inner face of its corresponding front or rear wall 40, 42 and having a rectangular channel or U-shaped offset 54 protruding toward the center of the tray 38. At spaced intervals this offset or channel 54 is provided with vertical slots 55 of substantial depth adapted to receive and hold in an upright position the corresponding end of a partition plate 51. It will be seen that the partition plates 51 can be set at different distances from one another to provide ways 56 extending fore-and-aft of the tray 38 which can be varied in width so that one way 56 can be adapted to receive, say, large diameter bottles 58 and the other ways can be adapted to receive smaller bottles 59.

It is desirable to be able to adjust the fore-and-aft inclination of each tray 38 and to this end a bolt 60 extends through the rear end of each side wall 44 of each tray with its shank protruding outwardly therefrom as best shown in FIG. 7. On this shank of this bolt is pivotally supported the upper end of a sheet metal leg 61 which extends downwardly alongside the corresponding side wall 44 and is preferably provided at its lower end with a rubber foot 62. A serrated washer 63 on the shank of the bolt 60 is shown as interposed between each leg 61 and the corresponding side wall 44, the radial serrations 64 on opposite sides of this washer 63 frictionally engaging the opposing faces of the corresponding side wall 44 and leg 61. Each leg 61 is firmly held in any adjusted position by a nut 65 on the bolt 60 engaging the outer face of the corresponding leg 61.

In use, the partitions 51 are adjusted to be in different spaced relation to one another to suit the sizes or shape of the bottles 58, 59 or other articles which the drawer 15 is to contain. This is done by shifting the partition 51 along the slots 55 to adjust the width of the ways 56 to any desired width.

The nuts 65 are then loosened and the legs 61 adjusted to hold the tray 38 at any desired fore-and-aft inclination with relation to the horizontal. Thus if the articles 58, 59 are relatively smooth and slippery, such as the bottles shown, each tray 38 would be adjusted toward the lowermost position shown by full lines in FIG. 3. On the other hand, if the articles 58, 59 have a high coefiicient of friction, the legs 61 can be moved toward a vertical position so as to elevate the rear end of the tray 38 toward the highest position illustrated by dot-dash lines in FIG. 3. In any high, low or intermediate position selected, the nuts 65 are tightened thereby to hold each leg 61 in firm engagement with its serrated washer 63 and this serrated washer in firm engagement with its tray side wall 44. By such adjustment the articles 58, 59 in the ways 56 can be made to slide down by gravity to the front ends of the ways, upon removal of the foremost articles in the ways, without danger of breaking or injuring the articles.

It will be seen that since each drawer opening 14 in the cabinet 9 is much higher than the front wall 25 of the drawer 15, the pharmacist can reach down and select any size or shape of bottle 58, 59 or other article Without opening the drawer 15, the balance of the articles in that way immediately sliding down to fill the vacant space.

It will accordingly be seen that the present invention achieves the objectives and has the advantages initially set forth.

I claim:

1. A drawer adapted for horizontal sliding movement into and out of a cabinet through a horizontally elongated rectangular drawer opening in the side of the cabinet, the drawer having vertical front, side and rear vertical walls connected together adjacent their ends to form general continuations of one another, a horizontal slide rail fixed to the drawer adjacent and parallel with each of said side walls and slidingly supported by said cabinet to provide such horizontal sliding movement into and out of the cabinet, said front and rear walls being of a horizontal length generally equal to the horizontal width of said opening wherein the invention comprises the upper edge of said front wall being spaced from the top edge of said opening, in the closed position of said drawer within said cabinet, a distance to enable manual access into the front part of the drawer when the drawer is closed, means carried by said walls and having a bottom wall sloping downwardly, with reference to the horizontal, from said rear wall to said front wall whereby upon sliding said drawer on its side rails horizontally out of said cabinet through said opening a quantity of articles can be conveniently loaded on said bottom wall and upon thereafter sliding said drawer on its side rails into said cabinet the articles so placed on said tray tend to slide down toward said front wall to be successively manually accessible through said opening without sliding said drawer out of said cabinet through said opening.

2. A drawer as set forth in claim 1 wherein said bottom wall has front, rear and side walls rising therefrom to form a tray wherein said tray is provided with spaced vertical partitions over said bottom wall extending generally parallel with said side walls and forming ways guiding said articles so sliding down toward said front wall.

3. A drawer as set forth in claim 2 wherein means are provided for adjusting the elevation of the rear end of said tray with reference to said connected front, side and rear walls of said drawer.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,189,371 7/1916 Lyons 211-126 1,745,784 2/1930 Davis 211-126 X 2,160,102 5/1939 Hull 31245 X 2,492,912 12/ 1949 Womakk 312-45 2,915,193 12/1959 Bromberg 211-184 X 3,006,707 10/1961 Rossi 312121 3,099,231 7/1963 Bass 1089 3,203,554 8/1965 Pendergast 31245 X DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner. 

1. A DRAWER ADAPTED FOR HORIZONTAL SLIDING MOVEMENT INTO AND OUT OF A CABINET THROUGH A HORIZONTALLY ELONGATED RECTANGULAR DRAWER OPENING IN THE SIDE OF THE CABINET, THE DRAWER HAVING VERTICAL FRONT, SIDE AND REAR VERTICAL WALLS CONNECTED TOGETHER ADJACENT THEIR ENDS TO FORM GENERAL CONTINUATIONS OF ONE ANOTHER, A HORIZONTAL SLIDE RAIL FIXED TO THE DRAWER ADJACENT AND PARALLEL WITH EACH OF SAID SIDE WALLS AND SLIDINGLY SUPPORTED BY SAID CABINET TO PROVIDE SUCH HORIZONTAL SLIDING MOVEMENT INTO AND OUT OF THE CABINET, SAID FRONT AND REAR WALLS BEING OF A HORIZONTAL LENGTH GENERALLY EQUAL TO THE HORIZONTAL WIDTH OF SAID OPENING WHEREIN THE INVENTION COMPRISES THE UPPER EDGE OF SAID FRONT WALL BEING SPACED FROM THE TOP EDGE OF SAID OPENING, IN THE CLOSED POSITION OF SAID DRAWER WITHIN SAID CABINET, A DISTANCE TO ENABLE MANUAL ACCESS INTO THE FRONT PART OF THE DRAWER WHEN THE DRAWER IS CLOSED, MEANS CARRIED BY SAID WALLS AND HAVING A BOTTOM WALL SLOPING DOWNWARDLY, WITH REFERENCE TO THE HORIZONTAL, FROM SAID REAR WALL TO SAID FRONT WALL WHEREBY UPON SLIDING SAID DRAWER ON ITS SIDE RAIL HORIZONTALLY OUT OF SAID CABINET THROUGH SAID OPENING A QUANTITY OF ARTICLES CAN BE CONVENIENTLY LOADED ON SAID BOTTOM WALL AND UPON THEREAFTER SLIDING SAID DRAWER ON ITS SIDE RAILS INTO SAID CABINET THE ARTICLES SO PLACED ON SAID TRAY TEND TO SLIDE DOWN TOWARD SAID FRONT WALL TO BE SUCCESSIVELY MANUALLY ACCESSIBLE THROUGH SAID OPENING WITHOUT SLIDING SAID DRAWER OUT OF SAID CABINET THROUGH SAID OPENING. 